#the uvalde cops are useless

[longwindedbore]

Bullshit in USAmerica.

1950s we dropped under our and covered our heads to practice a nuclear bomb was dropped on our city.

Fukking useless USA bullshit.

Just like expecting cops with 3-4 months training to go room to room to find someone armed with an essentially milirltary grade high-cycling, high capacity long gun.

Fukking useless USA bullshit.

The military might send a team in IF there is an element of surprise and IF they know where the shooters BUT ONLY a small team who spend their year with coordinate training and firing more rounds than the whole Marine Corps.

Otherwise the only military solutions are snipers or bomb the building.

Expecting cops who never train together to somehow decide to pull off a suicide mission that will leave ten cops or crippled before the shooter gets taken?

Fukking useles USA bullshit

In this country we have a shame and rage inducing propaganda machine directed at the 5% of the population who own half or more of the military knockoff assault rifles.

Gee, if only there were a solution.

[chuplayswithfire]

This metaphor is so incredibly stupid. Democratic politicians are, every day, taking action to try and curtail and prevent Republican actions.

In this useless metaphor, the Uvalde cops equivalent would be the American people who voted in a trifecta of power for the Republicans.

[kineticpenguin]

The thing that infuriates me the most about the Uvalde cops is that they were worse than useless. They actively stopped others from intervening as well... and they're still cops. There are no consequences. People keep throwing around this "well, you don't know how you'd react" thing and well. You know what?

Fine. I will concede exactly one inch on this:

If you are a cop, trained -as the Uvalde cops were- not to wait for backup against a school shooter and intervene, wearing your battle rattle and carbine, and you hear those gunshots and feel a fragment of drywall hit your ear, and you suddenly realize you're not up to this, that you've got a special kind of hide to be saved, and you can't risk it even as the dying children scream, and you feel yourself starting to want to say things about making sure you go home, well...

Go home.

Leave the scene, turn all your shit in, go home, and never come back. Throw away your uniforms and all your cop kitsch, scrape off your Thin Blue Line decals off your vehicles and leave all the cop social media groups. Probably best to move to another town and get a new job, one not in law enforcement.

It's one thing to find out the hard way that you are not that guy. It's another thing entirely to let your pride mix with your cowardice so that you make the situation even worse, and then have the gall to still wear your costume and draw a paycheck from the community whose children you helped die.

[qqueenofhades]

Why are conservatives at the point of global warming denial and spreading Sandy Hook conspiracy theories?

Er, "at the point of?" They've been denying climate change for literal decades, ever since it entered the public consciousness as an organised concept. (They have now largely switched to "your personal actions are responsible for climate change, and not those blameless mega-corporations," but yes.) And the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, reprehensible as they are, are largely the work of one person/entity, aka Alex Jones/Infowars. He has been spreading them for ten years, ever since the shooting in 2012, and now is finally on the point of getting the bejesus sued out of him by the bereaved families. And frankly, I hope they run him into the ground, take everything he has, and then back the truck up and do it again. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

What this means, in other words, is that neither of these positions are particularly new, and in the case of Sandy Hook, are largely spread by one person. However, this reflects the paranoid conspiracy thinking that has become a hallmark of modern "conservatism," from claiming that 9/11 was an inside job to, of course, the Big Lie about the 2020 election. In this mindset, you can never have lost fairly or on the merits of your ideas; it must be because nefarious opposing forces colluded to cheat you. It's the "do your own research!" mindset taken to extremes, where nothing is true, everything has been covered up, and everyone is out to get you at all times. Which, to be honest, sounds like a truly exhausting way to live, but for some people, there is literally nothing except their sense of grievance and dispossession.

As for school shootings, the mainstream Republican line now isn't to outright deny that they happened, but to just tweet "thoughts and prayers" and do literally nothing else. To them, there is no amount of mass shootings that will convince them to give up their guns, as they believe that they need them for "protection!" from Democrats, black people, Muslims, etc. They don't care if a troubled teenager with a history of making threatening statements can walk into a store and legally buy an AR-15 on his eighteenth birthday, as long as that kid is white. When violence inevitably happens, they fall over themselves blaming literally everything else (as with the "there were too many doors!" nonsense after Uvalde). Even though in that situation, their other favorite solution, "a good guy with a gun," was in fact worse than useless to the point of active criminal liability. If literally 400 armed cops stood outside the school for 40 minutes and did nothing while kids were killed, because they were all too cowardly to risk their lives against a single military-grade assault rifle, why the fuck does anyone need to have one? Good question. Ask the Republicans.

Anyway, as I have written about in many other asks, the ultimate answer to this, and most of the other insanity of the modern GOP, is completely unhinged reactionary racism stemming from the election of Obama and the subsequent white-grievance-fueled rise of Trump. This is also why the people, including Biden at one point, who thought the Republicans would "come to their senses" and automatically return to more moderate positions after Trump was gone were so wrong. Instead, the Republican have raced to adopt even more extreme policies even faster, fueled by more grievance at Trump being "cheated," and also because they have been fully radicalized, which is a major and permanent shift in mental state. There's no such thing as just "snapping out" of it, which is why people who study the psychology of cults have written about Trump and his whole movement fit that exact mold. It is much easier to radicalize someone than it is to de-radicalize them, and assuming that they will just automatically return to their prior state of mind is, at the best, deeply naïve.

Likewise, the Republican base has now been so inoculated to such a high starting level of extremism that any politician hoping to appeal to that crowd has to be as crazy as possible-- whether or not they personally believe it, which is even more dangerous and irresponsible, as they deliberately cultivate and exploit the worst parts of America for selfish money and power. Likewise, you can see signs that the movement is starting to ditch Trump more and more, as he is an active liability who appears to be in line for multiple criminal prosecutions and was always an unhinged sociopathic idiot who the GOP hitched their wagon to because he was useful. Now, however, we are seeing a slow but steady shift to Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, who appears to be Trumpism's heir apparent. Which is even more terrifying, because while Trump was obviously moronic, incoherent, and borderline illiterate, DeSantis is a well-educated, well-dressed, well-spoken fascist who is "respectable" enough to win back the votes of "moderate" Republicans who had no problem with Trump's repellent political policies but were offended by his personal vulgarity. Everyone is talking about a Trump rerun in 2024 (though please god, let him be either in prison or dead by then), but in my view, we should be much more vigilant about DeSantis. Because the media will go wild hyping him up as a "real challenger" to Biden, he will get endless unearned airtime and positioning as a serious figure.

This is especially the case since there is a framework for a billionaire/corporate tax in the Democrats' new budget bill. The oligarchs will fight tooth and nail for DeSantis, even though he is such a true-believer nutjob that he went after goddamn WALT DISNEY WORLD, aka the biggest employer in the state and 75% of the reason that anyone apart from Republican retirees ever goes to Florida. That is because big business always thinks that it can "make a deal" with fascists, and they don't particularly care if that's what happens to everyone else, as long as they get their tax breaks. Of course, they don't want to be SEEN doing this, which is why they will publicly pledge to stop all political donations to election deniers, then quietly pick them up again after a suitable amount of time has passed and they think nobody is looking.

Basically, as the tide of public momentum continues to turn against Trump, I see the establishment GOP deciding to throw him under the bus, blame him and him alone for January 6, and insist that the problem was with him and not the entire structure, personnel, and philosophy of the entire modern Republican Party. Then they can move on to some more "mainstream" white-Harvard-alum fascist a la the DeSantis/Hawley/Cruz crowd, who will be just as bad or worse, but much more able to appear "normal," put coherent sentences together, and act "respectable." I don't know how that will end, but the way things are right now, I sure don't feel particularly hopeful.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Fuck man, there were 376 cops at Uvalde??? God cops are useless

Who would win?

376 heavily-armed swine decked out in riot gear

OR

One single greasy, demented creep with a gun?

The answer may surprise you!

[megmelodia]

And then they say “our hands are tied.” While never even addressing the issues that are creating a rising tide of fascism in this country, let alone legislating for them.

The Republicans are the active shooter at Uvalde and the Democrats are the useless cops standing around outside.

Source

[scottguy]

The police protect property more than people. They're always on the side of the ruling class.

Other countries do fine without militarized police. If we allow less free access to guns the cops wouldn't have an excuse to be a military force.

AND... even with all their weapons they cowered helpless afraid to go after a lone shooter and simply let children bleed to death in Uvalde. The ridiculous amount of firepower the police had was useless.

"Swatting" shouldn't even be a thing but the cops are EAGER to play army.

Police are at war with American citizens despite decades of shrinking crime rates.

Their intimidation and instigation in manifest.

[longwindedbore]

Dobbs, sure.

But what about 41 million GenZs of voting age ALL of whom went through active shooter drills?

Not from any external threats. Not from any shooter crossing our Southern border.

The threat was from the crazy-eyed born-in-Gun-lusting-USA students.

Students in their very schools…studying what the other students/potential victims were doing.

In 413 mass murders in schools since Columbine always another student at their school.

GOP response: Always “too soon after to make it political”. Always useless “thoughts and prayers” from those actively blocking ANY legislation.

413 mass murders by underaged shooters who armed themselves with the households guns and ammo which in no instance was locked in a gun safe.

All shooters from the narrow part of the political spectrum that considers the 2nd Amendment sancrosact and claims they “have all the guns”

FINAL EXAM: What did Uvalde and 130 armed cops doing nothing while elementary school children were murdered teach the 41 Million GenX about the efficacy of their active shooter drills they did that were so beloved of the GOP?

For that matter would the GOP idiocy of a teacher with a Glock being more effective defending a classroom against a modified-full-auto AR-15 with a hundred round drum magazine if 130 cops didn’t think they could go in without massive blue casualties?

Theses 41 million GenZ are spread across the country in Red States and in Blue. No one is including them in the polls which contact 2020 voters Many/most Gen/Z didn’t vote for the geriatric candidates in the primaries.

Consider also that - since GenZ has had to listen to the vomit inducing hypocritical-and-we-don’t-care-the NRA-pays-us-GOP response to school shootings - what do you imagine they think about the GOP’s positions on environmental safety and the Climate Catastrophe?

The GOP can make up any weird lies they want about Harris. We’ve stopped listening.

2024 will judge the GOP on 25 years of no responses to school shootings; the dystopian nightmares in Red States post-Dobbs; their indifference to environmental and catastrophic climate issues.

20 million Seniors have passed on since 2016. Trumps’s and the GOP’s base demographics slews to the over 50 crowd.

Trump’s primary numbers have dropped from 18M of 19M in 2020 to 17M of 22M in 2024. MAGA has lost every open of-year and special election since Dobbs.

It doesn’t help the GOP that so many of their talking heads are so creepy seem to be auditioning for Norman Bates in a remake of ‘Psycho’ or Kathy Bates character in “Misery”. Except Speaker Johnson; he wants the part of the ventriloquist’s dummy that comes to life in a remake of the ‘Twilight Zone.’

We’re sending the ReTrumplican Party/Cult our “thoughts and prayers”.

[kaninchenzero]

i don't think hope is as useful as many think it is

at least, i don't think using one's media platform to chastize so-called doomers for being pessimistic about the future, especially here in the united states, does anything useful

millions of americans spent the summer of 2020 protesting police brutality and we lost

cops are out there shooting Black people in the back of the fucking head, nothing has changed for the better and we have states making it illegal for cities to defund the police who are useless when people are being shot but are really good at evicting people from their homes, assaulting non violent protesters with chemical and kinetic less-lethal weapons, robbing vulnerable people under cover of civil forfeiture law, raping people in their custody including children, enslaving people for using drugs, making life even more miserable for homeless folks, and, of course, inflicting constant low level terror and trauma interspersed with moments of pure fear on vulnerable people

from what little i know the police in uvalde, texas did actually try to stop the murderer from shooting elementary school children to death but failed, which i can't fault them for

video and witness statements do not support this narrative

gun fights you see in visual media are scripted, choreographed, and rehearsed by professionals who know they're almost certainly not going to be actually shot and killed

actual gun fights are awful, confusing, and terrifying and it is very hard to use a pistol to kill an armed, armored, determined person

it is not hard to use a pistol to kill an unarmed, unresisting person at close range

which says something about the circumstances of most police shootings, don't you think?

anyway, these specific cops in this specific incident failed in the specific task of stopping a murderer which will have devastating effects on them personally but these specific cops did not fail in their moral duty as human beings

they tried and failed and the outcome was horrible but i have no blame for these specific individuals in this specific event

the information i had at the time i initially posted this said that three uvalde city cops had engaged the shooter before he got inside the school

and i was trying to be fair and take that at face value and not say "well if that is actually true because cops famously lie a lot"

dang

still, the institution of policing is incapable of actually keeping people safe from those who would do them harm, which is the stated justification for their existence despite all the obvious harm they do to people much more often

(they do just fine at their actual purpose of enforcing the will of the powerful on the powerless)

so

we failed

we tried, and we failed at our task of trying to even reduce police brutality in the united states and we failed to prevent a minority of americans from owning most of the privately owned firearms in the world (unfortunately, horrifyingly true)

the moral failures belong to those who benefit from our powerlessness

it's horrible

it's going to get worse because all the power structures in the united states reward the people making things worse

not permanently

even global warming (another struggle lost there) and large scale nuclear war aren't likely to be extinction events for humans as a species

but there still will be unthinkable amounts of suffering, bloodshed, and death in the near to medium future

so, while i admire and respect the people who still want to organize and protest and do non violent political action, i have no blame for anyone on our side who doesn't have the energy to be hopeful and doesn't have the taste for violent revolution

i don't have either of those

all i have left is trying to have as pleasant a life as i can with my wife and whatever cats share our home

if i had actual power i'd do something different, if a huge pile of money fell on me i'd feel shitty about fleeing texas and not using that money to help my community here, much though i would very like to get the fuck out of texas, it's awful here

i'll remain angry and bitter and hopeless, but the targets of my impotent rage will remain the people harming us

not myself and not anyone else who's just fuckin tired and wants to live whatever life they can scrape together

they're fine, morally

we're fine, morally

just like those uvalde cops mentioned above

lol nope i was wrong about them fuck the police

and just like them we'll have to feel how we feel about it

in the meantime, for me, there's weed, cloves, violent video games, and metalworking videos

(and i have Opinions about those, like how anybody working with super dangerous machines should be the only people who decide what a safe production rate is, but even my strongest Opinions have little impact on the world)

[angelnumber27]

The uselessness of the cops in the Uvalde shooting.. don’t become a cop if you’re scared. That simple.

[angelsaxis]

There's literally video of multiple cops standing outside the uvalde school while the shooter was INSIDE killing children, and instead of the cops doing anything they're pinning a parent down because they suggested storming into the building themselves. Fucking useless.

[geminiagentgreen]

If Uvalde was a psy-op, it really feels like poorly executed one; were the useless cops a part of the plan? They want to push for gun control AND police defunding for...someone else to come in?

...Even then, that sounds like a stretch: some UN military presence? That's only around 97k with every member nation pitching in. The US military is huge, but even with total compliance from all enlisted, and international matters to attend to, how many could be spared to police the nation? This idea makes the most sense to me, but I still don't wholly buy it. This whole thing reeks of incompetence more than it does careful planning from the government, and I'm not just saying that so as not to go depressed and paranoid from a full-dive into conspiracy theory.

[weightlessribbons]

thinking about how all the rhetoric about the cops at Uvalde being useless cowards (true, correct) will inevitably be used by both Republicans and Democrats to push for the further militarization of police and for tough-on-crime policy

[hopeyglass]

Uvalde cops were worse than useless and they should kill themselves in real life

[beesandwasps]

Yeah, because voting for Democrats is clearly so effective. Totally ignoring the fact that they have made excuses to let the Republicans take control of Congress, Biden’s administration has increased funding to cops, increased the military budget, increased fossil fuel production (and tried to pressure OPEC into doing the same), increased deportations, refused to investigate the Uvalde cops, followed the same “economy first, lives second” COVID policies as Trump, refused to actually forgive student loan debt (the much-ballyhooed forgiveness was less than 1% of the total), and has failed to apply any actual pressure on Congress to do any of the things which were in the platform. If your goal was to keep making things worse, but just a little bit slower and stealthier than Trump, then the Democrats have been a huge success. If you actually want to live in a decent country and world, the Democrats are not merely totally fucking useless, they are actively acting to sabotage you.

[riflebrass]

I don't disagree that they're pretty much useless, but that alone doesn't equal bastard in my book. Uvalde cops stopped parents from saving their kids. They're total bastards for that. The cops that raided Afroman were caught on camera stuffing his money in their pockets and really EVERYTHING about that raid was total horse shit. Absolute bastards. The cops that cuffed the woman on a road rage thing and stuck her in a car parked on the tracks when a passing train smacked it are again bastards. The cops here were basically useless, but they tried to contain the situation without just blasting away. Not bastards. Still useless, but not actually evil.

LOL